Another indictment in flipping fraud case

Published: Tuesday, January 15, 2013 at 1:00 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, January 14, 2013 at 9:31 p.m.

SARASOTA - A mortgage banker whose name was repeatedly mentioned during the three-month flipping fraud trial in Tampa last year has pleaded guilty to wire fraud and conspiring to make false statements to federally insured lenders.

Robyn Waugh States is the 21st person to be indicted in the large-scale conspiracy focused on the Sarasota area and led by former Realtors R. Craig Adams and his chief lieutenant Rich Bobka.

States also is the sixth mortgage banker to face a possible prison sentence for helping members of the group finance the purchase and resale of high-end properties by lying on loan applications.

Known better by her maiden name, Waugh, she helped Adams, Bobka and their associates get 10 loans totaling $14.5 million while working for American Home Mortgage in 2006 and 2007.

Her plea agreement mentions just one of those loans -- a $1.79 million mortgage to Greg Palmer, an associate of Bobka's who later committed suicide.

Waugh's plea says Palmer's income and asset information was falsified on his loan application. She then supplied a National City Bank loan officer with a copy of the false loan application so Palmer could get a second loan for $350,000.

During his three days on the witness stand in March, Adams said Waugh was one of a dozen loan officers who played a critical role in his decade-long crime spree.

Mortgage bankers and brokers were the ones who knew what income and asset information to put on loan applications to make sure members of the conspiracy could get loans to finance their bogus real estate deals.

The five other mortgage officials indicted in the case thus far are Craig Whitehead, Mike Bangasser, Mark Leetzow, Jonathan Glucker and Scott Schuhriemen. But federal prosecutors said in October that the investigation into the Adams-Bobka conspiracy is not over and more indictments may be forthcoming.

Besides being mentioned by Adams, Waugh's name also appears in a recorded conversation between Adams and his longtime title agent, Lisa Rotolo -- part of Adams' cooperation with the FBI. Rotolo also was indicted and sentenced to prison for her role in the conspiracy.

Rotolo told Adams, who was wearing a recording device, that she had recently talked to Waugh and Waugh was nervous about what she had done.

"I mean she's nervous about it, but you know, I told her -- I said, until something happens just ... stay the course and do business and go forward," Rotolo said.

Contacted by the Herald-Tribune in 2009, Waugh denied knowing about Adams' scheme and said she had followed underwriting guidelines on the loans she provided for him and his co-conspirators.

"I'll tell you straight up -- I did do a loan for Craig's mom," Waugh told the Herald-Tribune. "But I didn't know anything about what you're talking about. I just did the loans for Mrs. Adams."

This story appeared in print on page D1

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